With all the focus on Brexit let’s not forgive this Tory government for the crisis in our NHS as the staffing shortfall of 100,000 could reach quarter of a million by the end of the next decade, this is shocking.
I note the latest joint briefing by the King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust think tanks warned that shortages of staff risk longer waiting lists, declining care quality and new NHS money going unspent.
The report, The health care workforce in England: make or break, draws on a new forecast of the staffing gaps emerging in the 1.2 million strong workforce. It predicts an increase in NHS staff shortages from over 100,000 currently to almost 250,000 by 2030. This could mean that over one in six health service posts are short of an appropriate staff member by the end of the next decade.
The three organisations warn that these shortages could be over 300,000 if the NHS continues to lose staff and cannot attract the right skills from abroad.
Our NHS workers are under a lot of pressure as workloads increase and with the continuation of low pay and rising demand caused by cuts to social care these valued workers are being driven out of the service. If the number of vacancies are allowed to double, then patients could be at risk.
The briefing comes as NHS leaders are poised to publish their plan of how the health service can adapt to the next ten years in response to the £20.5 billion funding boost confirmed by the chancellor in the Autumn budget.
Even before the increase in funding the NHS could not recruit the staff it needed because of incoherent approach to workforce policy at national level.
Poor workforce planning, restrictive immigration polices and inadequate funding for training places.
This briefing should remind us all of the damage inflicted on the NHS by the repeated failure to plan, fund and support the health and care workforce over the years as this crisis has not just appeared overnight.
Rodney Sadd
Spalding
